Fresh from the convincing four-game sweep of the Boston Celtics in their first-round series, Kyrie Irving expressed his desire to ink a contract extension with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason.
Irving told reporters that he has no plans to leave the franchise, even saying that he’ll further manage the team together with co-star Kevin Durant, lead executive Sean Marks, and owner Joe Tsai in the future.
“I don’t really plan on going anywhere,” Irving said about his contract status, via ClutchPoints’ Dave Early. “When I say I’m here with Kev [Durant] I think that it really entails us managing this franchise together alongside Joe [Tsai] and Sean [Marks] … we’re cornerstones here but we have Ben [Simmons], we have a few other guys.”
Irving holds a $36.5 million player option for the next season. He may opt out and ink a much lucrative offer up to $245.6 million for five years.
But that can only be determined if the Nets brass would offer him that amount and length of partnership.
With the Nets, Irving had an unforgettable season that was marred by controversy. He was shelved in the earlier parts of the 2021-2022 campaign for refusing to take a COVID-19 shot amid New York’s vaccine mandate.
Eventually, he was inserted in the lineup for road games because of the Nets’ unavailability issues due to positive cases and injuries. In the late season, he found himself back and eligible for full-time exposure upon the amendment of the city’s guidelines.
Throughout 29 games, Irving etched an average of 27.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 46.9 percent from the area. While these are splendid regular season numbers for the multi-time All-star, the Nets only went for a disappointing 14-15 record with him while sliding to the top seven finish of the East entering the playoffs.
Indeed, this summer will be a much-anticipated one for Brooklyn. More than Irving’s long-term status with the ball club, they have other bigger questions to face, like the availability of Ben Simmons.
